Wallace Earle Stegner (February 18, 1909 – April 13, 1993) was an American

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...

writer,

environmentalist An environmentalist is a person who is concerned with and/or advocates for the protection of the environment. An environmentalist can be considered a supporter of the goals of the environmental movement, "a political and ethical movement that se ...

, and

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...

, often called "The Dean of Western Writers". He won the

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...

in 1972 and the U.S.

National Book Award The National Book Awards are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. The Nat ...

in 1977.

Personal life

Stegner was born in

Lake Mills, Iowa Lake Mills is a city in Winnebago County, Iowa, Winnebago County, Iowa, United States. The population was 2,143 at the time of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. History Lake Mills was platted in part of the northeast quadrant of Center T ...

, and grew up in

Great Falls, Montana Great Falls is the third most populous city in the U.S. state of Montana and the county seat of Cascade County. The population was 60,442 according to the 2020 census. The city covers an area of and is the principal city of the Great Falls, M ...

;

Salt Lake City, Utah Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...

; and the village of

Eastend, Saskatchewan Eastend is a town in south-west part of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, situated approximately north of the Montana border and east of the Alberta border. The town is best known for the nearby discovery of a ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' ...

, which he wrote about in his autobiography ''Wolf Willow''. Stegner says he "lived in twenty places in eight states and Canada". He was the son of Hilda (née Paulson) and George Stegner. Stegner summered in Greensboro, Vermont. While living in Utah, he joined a

Boy Scout A Scout (in some countries a Boy Scout, Girl Scout, or Pathfinder) is a child, usually 10–18 years of age, participating in the worldwide Scouting movement. Because of the large age and development span, many Scouting associations have split ...

troop at an

LDS Church The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Christianity, Christian church that considers itself to be the Restorationism, restoration of the ...

(although he himself was a

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

) and earned the

Eagle Scout Eagle Scout is the highest achievement or rank attainable in the Scouts BSA program of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). Since its inception in 1911, only four percent of Scouts have earned this rank after a lengthy review process. The Eagle Sc ...

award. He received a

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

at the

University of Utah The University of Utah (U of U, UofU, or simply The U) is a public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is the flagship institution of the Utah System of Higher Education. The university was established in 1850 as the University of De ...

in 1930. While at the University of Utah he was initiated into Sigma Nu International Fraternity. He was inducted into the Sigma Nu Hall of Honor at the 68th Grand Chapter in Washington D.C. He also studied at the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is org ...

, where he received a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in 1932 and a

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...

in 1935. In 1934, Stegner married Mary Stuart Page. For 59 years they shared a "personal literary partnership of singular facility," in the words of

Arthur Schlesinger Jr. Arthur Meier Schlesinger Jr. (; born Arthur Bancroft Schlesinger; October 15, 1917 – February 28, 2007) was an American historian, social critic, and public intellectual. The son of the influential historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Sr. and a spe ...

Stegner died in

Santa Fe, New Mexico Santa Fe ( ; , Spanish for 'Holy Faith'; tew, Oghá P'o'oge, Tewa for 'white shell water place'; tiw, Hulp'ó'ona, label=Tiwa language, Northern Tiwa; nv, Yootó, Navajo for 'bead + water place') is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. ...

, on April 13, 1993, as the result of a car accident on March 28, 1993. Stegner's son,

Page Stegner Stuart Page Stegner (born January 31, 1937, in Salt Lake City, Utah, died December 14, 2017, in Reno, Nevada) was a novelist, essayist, and historian who wrote extensively about the American West. He was the son of novelist and historian Wallace S ...

, was a novelist, essayist,

nature writer Nature writing is nonfiction or fiction prose or poetry about the natural environment. Nature writing encompasses a wide variety of works, ranging from those that place primary emphasis on natural history facts (such as field guides) to those in w ...

and professor emeritus at

University of California, Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California syste ...

. Page was married to Lynn Stegner, a novelist. Page co-authored ''American Places'' and edited the 2008 ''Collected Letters of Wallace Stegner''. He was

Thomas Heggen Thomas Heggen (December 23, 1918 – May 19, 1949) was an American author best known for his 1946 novel '' Mister Roberts'' and its adaptations to stage and screen. Heggen became an Oklahoman in 1935, when in the depths of the Depression h ...

's cousin.

Activism

In the 1940s, Stegner was a leading member of the Peninsula Housing Association, a group of locals in Palo Alto aiming to build a large co-operative housing complex for Stanford University faculty and staff on a 260-acre ranch the group had purchased near campus. Private lenders and the Federal Housing Authority would not provide financing to the group because three of the families were African-American. Rather than be a party to housing discrimination by proceeding without these families, the group abandoned the project and eventually sold the land.

Career

Stegner taught at the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

and

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

. Eventually he settled at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

, where he founded the creative writing program. His students included

Wendell Berry Wendell Erdman Berry (born August 5, 1934) is an American novelist, poet, essayist, environmental activist, cultural critic, and farmer. Closely identified with rural Kentucky, Berry developed many of his agrarian themes in the early essays of ' ...

Sandra Day O'Connor Sandra Day O'Connor (born March 26, 1930) is an American retired attorney and politician who served as the first female associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1981 to 2006. She was both the first woman nominated and th ...

Edward Abbey Edward Paul Abbey (January 29, 1927 – March 14, 1989) was an American author, essayist, and environmental activist noted for his advocacy of environmental issues and criticism of public land policies. His best-known works include ''Desert Solit ...

Simin Daneshvar Simin Dāneshvar ( fa, سیمین دانشور)‎ (28 April 1921 – 8 March 2012) was an Iranian academic, novelist, fiction writer and translator. She was largely regarded as the first major Iranian woman novelist. Her books dealt with the ...

, Andrew Glaze,

George V. Higgins George V. Higgins (November 13, 1939 – November 6, 1999) was an American author, lawyer, newspaper columnist, raconteur and college professor. He authored more than thirty books, including ''Bomber's Law,'' ''Trust,'' and ''Kennedy for the De ...

Thomas McGuane Thomas Francis McGuane III (born December 11, 1939) is an American writer. His work includes ten novels, short fiction and screenplays, as well as three collections of essays devoted to his life in the outdoors. He is a member of the American A ...

, Robert Stone,

Ken Kesey Ken Elton Kesey (September 17, 1935 – November 10, 2001) was an American novelist, essayist and countercultural figure. He considered himself a link between the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the hippies of the 1960s. Kesey was born in ...

Gordon Lish Gordon Lish (born February 11, 1934 in Hewlett, New York) is an American writer. As a literary editor, he championed many American authors, particularly Raymond Carver, Barry Hannah, Amy Hempel, Rick Bass, and Richard Ford. He is the father of t ...

Ernest Gaines Ernest is a given name derived from Germanic word ''ernst'', meaning "serious". Notable people and fictional characters with the name include: People *Archduke Ernest of Austria (1553–1595), son of Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor *Ernest, M ...

, and

Larry McMurtry Larry Jeff McMurtry (June 3, 1936March 25, 2021) was an American novelist, essayist, bookseller and screenwriter whose work was predominantly set in either the Old West or contemporary Texas.

. He served as a special assistant to

Secretary of the Interior Secretary of the Interior may refer to: * Secretary of the Interior (Mexico) * Interior Secretary of Pakistan * Secretary of the Interior and Local Government (Philippines) * United States Secretary of the Interior See also

*Interior ministry ...

Stewart Udall Stewart Lee Udall (January 31, 1920 – March 20, 2010) was an American politician and later, a federal government official. After serving three terms as a congressman from Arizona, he served as Secretary of the Interior from 1961 to 1969, unde ...

and was elected to the

Sierra Club The Sierra Club is an environmental organization with chapters in all 50 United States, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. The club was founded on May 28, 1892, in San Francisco, California, by Scottish-American preservationist John Muir, who be ...

's board of directors for a term that lasted 1964–1966. He also moved into a house near

Matadero Creek Matadero Creek is a stream originating in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains in Santa Clara County, California, United States. The creek flows in a northeasterly direction for until it enters the Palo Alto Flood Basin, where it joins Ado ...

on Three Forks Road in nearby

Los Altos Hills Los Altos Hills (; ''Los Altos'', Spanish language, Spanish for "The Heights") is an List of municipalities in California, incorporated town in Santa Clara County, California, Santa Clara County, California, United States. The population was 8,4 ...

and became one of the town's most prominent residents. In 1962, he co-founded the Committee for Green Foothills, an environmental organization dedicated to preserving and protecting the hills, forests, creeks, wetlands and coastal lands of the San Francisco Peninsula. Stegner's novel ''

Angle of Repose The angle of repose, or critical angle of repose, of a granular material is the steepest angle of descent or dip relative to the horizontal plane to which a material can be piled without slumping. At this angle, the material on the slope fac ...

'' (first published by Doubleday in early 1971) won the

Pulitzer Prize for Fiction The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It recognizes distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life, published during ...

in 1972. It was based on the letters of Mary Hallock Foote (first published in 1972 by Huntington Library Press as the memoir '' A Victorian Gentlewoman in the Far West''). Stegner explained his use of unpublished archival letters briefly at the beginning of ''Angle of Repose'' but his use of uncredited passages taken directly from Foote's letters caused a continuing controversy. In 1977 Stegner won the

for '' The Spectator Bird.'' In 1992, he refused a National Medal from the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

because he believed the NEA had become too politicized. Stegner's semi-autobiographical novel '' Crossing to Safety'' (1987) gained broad literary acclaim and commercial popularity. Stegner's non-fiction works include ''Beyond the Hundredth Meridian: John Wesley Powell and the Second Opening of the West'' (1954), a biography of

John Wesley Powell John Wesley Powell (March 24, 1834 – September 23, 1902) was an American geologist, U.S. Army soldier, explorer of the American West, professor at Illinois Wesleyan University, and director of major scientific and cultural institutions. He ...

, the first white man to explore the

Colorado River The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid drainage basin, watershed that encompasses parts of ...

through

the Grand Canyon The Grand Canyon (, yuf-x-yav, Wi:kaʼi:la, , Southern Paiute language: Paxa’uipi, ) is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in Arizona, United States. The Grand Canyon is long, up to wide and attains a depth of over a mi ...

. Powell later served as a government scientist and was an advocate of

water conservation Water conservation includes all the policies, strategies and activities to sustainably manage the natural resource of fresh water, to protect the hydrosphere, and to meet the current and future human demand (thus avoiding water scarcity). Populati ...

in the

American West The Western United States (also called the American West, the Far West, and the West) is the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. As American settlement in the U.S. expanded westward, the meaning of the term ''the Wes ...

. Stegner wrote the foreword to and edited ''This Is Dinosaur'', with photographs by Philip Hyde. The

book was used in the campaign to prevent dams in

Dinosaur National Monument Dinosaur National Monument is an American national monument located on the southeast flank of the Uinta Mountains on the border between Colorado and Utah at the confluence of the Green and Yampa rivers. Although most of the monument area is in ...

and helped launch the modern environmental movement. A substantial number of Stegner's works are set in and around

Greensboro, Vermont Greensboro is the southernmost town in Orleans County, Vermont, United States. The population was 811 at the 2020 census. The town includes the places of Campbells Corners, East Greensboro, Gebbie Corner, Greensboro Four Corners, Greensboro B ...

, where he lived part-time. Some of his character representations (particularly in '' Second Growth'') were sufficiently unflattering that residents took offense, and he did not visit Greensboro for several years after its publication.

Legacy

On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Stegner's birth,

Timothy Egan Timothy P. Egan (born November 8, 1954) is an American author, journalist and op-ed columnist for ''The New York Times'', writing from a liberal perspective. Egan has written nine books. His first, ''The Good Rain'', won the Pacific Northwest B ...

reflected in ''The New York Times'' on the writer's legacy, including his perhaps troubled relationship with the newspaper itself. Over 100 readers including

Jane Smiley Jane Smiley (born September 26, 1949) is an American novelist. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1992 for her novel ''A Thousand Acres'' (1991). Biography Born in Los Angeles, California, Smiley grew up in Webster Groves, Missouri, a su ...

offered comments on the subject. In recognition of Stegner's legacy at the

, The Wallace Stegner Prize in Environmental or American Western History was established in 2010 and is administered by the

University of Utah Press The University of Utah Press is the independent publishing branch of the University of Utah and is a division of the J. Willard Marriott Library. Founded in 1949 by A. Ray Olpin, it is also the oldest university press in Utah. The mission of th ...

. This book publication prize is awarded to the best monograph the Press receives on the topic of American western or environmental history within a predetermined time period. Retrieved May 24, 2021. Lewis-Clark State College in

Lewiston, Idaho Lewiston is a city and the county seat of Nez Perce County, Idaho, United States, in the state's north central region. It is the second-largest city in the northern Idaho region, behind Coeur d'Alene, and ninth-largest in the state. Lewiston is ...

, has a history of presenting an annual lecture titled after Stegner. The Wallace Stegner Lecture has long been a literary-cultural highlight for the LCSC community. The annual lecture features discussions about the writer's relationship with the physical and psychological territories in which he or she resides. The

Stegner Fellowship The Stegner Fellowship program is a two-year creative writing fellowship at Stanford University. The award is named after American Wallace Stegner (1909–1993), a historian, novelist, short story writer, environmentalist, and Stanford faculty mem ...

program at

is a two-year creative writing fellowship. The house Stegner lived in from age 7 to 12 in

, Canada, was restored by the Eastend Arts Council in 1990 and established as a Residence for Artists; the Wallace Stegner Grant For The Arts offers a grant of $500 and free residency at the house for the month of October for published Canadian writers. In 2003, the

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...

trio Mambo Sons released the Stegner-influenced song "Little Live Thing / Cross to Safety" written by Scott Lawson and

Tom Guerra Tom Guerra is an American guitarist, songwriter, and vintage guitar preservationist. He has been a member of Mambo Sons and Dirty Bones Band, has appeared as a guest on recordings by other notable artists, and has released albums under his own name ...

, which resulted in an invitation for Lawson to serve as Artist-in-Residency for March 2009. In 2005, th
Los Altos History Museum
mounted an exhibition entitled "Wallace Stegner: Throwing a Long Shadow" providing a retrospective of the author's life and works. In May 2011, the ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. de ...

'' reported that Stegner's Los Altos Hills home, which was sold in 2005, was scheduled to be demolished by the current owners. Lynn Stegner said the family attempted to sell the home to Stanford University in an attempt to preserve it, but the university said the home would be sold at market value, customary for real estate donated to Stanford. Wallace Stegner's wife, Mary, said that Wallace would disapprove of the fuss surrounding the issue. Wallace initially opposed the creation of a hiking path near his home but Mary Stegner confided that her husband later came to enjoy walking on it, and the path was eventually named for him posthumously, in 2008. In August 2016 a public charter school called the Wallace Stegner Academy opened in Salt Lake City, Utah. The school was named after Wallace Stegner because the founders valued people like Stegner who are devoted to academics and pursue the advancement of knowledge and art throughout their entire lives. The Wallace Earle Stegner papers (Ms0676), 1935–2004, can be found at the University of Utah Marriott Library Special Collections Manuscripts Division. With 29 boxes and 139 linear feet, the collections contains personal and professional correspondence, journals, manuscript drafts for work both published and unpublished, research material, memorabilia, scrapbooks, books containing letters of condolence compiled by Mary Stegner, and Wallace's personal typewriter. The Wallace Stegner Research Collection: 1942-1996, Collection 2443, can be found at the

Montana State University Archives and Special Collections The Montana State University Archives and Special Collections, also known as the Merrill G. Burlingame Archives and Special Collections, is located in Bozeman, Montana. The archives is on the second floor of the Renne Library on the Montana State U ...

Bozeman, Montana Bozeman is a city and the county seat of Gallatin County, Montana, United States. Located in southwest Montana, the 2020 census put Bozeman's population at 53,293, making it the fourth-largest city in Montana. It is the principal city of th ...

. This collection of published materials and correspondence by and about Stegner was compiled by Nancy Colberg, a librarian and the author of ''Wallace Stegner: A Descriptive Bibliography'' and former owner of Willow Creek Books in

Denver, Colorado Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

. The materials were sold to the Archives in 2001. The collection contains Stegner articles and short stories from newspapers and periodicals, published interviews and articles about Stegner and his work, and personal and professional correspondence. A smaller collection of materials relating to Stegner gathered by Thomas H. Watkins was later added to Collection 2443. The collection is divided into four series with a total of 7 boxes or 3.2 linear feet.

Bibliography

;Novels * ''Remembering Laughter'' (1937) * ''The Potter's House'' (1938) * ''On a Darkling Plain'' (1940) * ''Fire and Ice'' (1941) * ''

The Big Rock Candy Mountain "The Big Rock Candy Mountains", first recorded by Harry McClintock in 1928, is a country folk song about a hobo's idea of paradise, a modern version of the medieval concept of Cockaigne. It is a place where "hens lay soft-boiled eggs" and ther ...

'' (1943), semi-autobiographical * ''Second Growth'' (1947) * ''

The Preacher and the Slave "The Preacher and the Slave" is a song written by Joe Hill in 1911. It was written as a parody of the hymn "In the Sweet By-and-By". Copying or using the musical style of the hymn was also a way to capture the emotional resonance of that style o ...

'' (1950), reissued as ''Joe Hill: A Biographical Novel'' * ''A Shooting Star'' (1961) * ''All the Little Live Things'' (1967) * ''Joe Hill: A Biographical Novel'' (1969) * ''

'' (1971), winner of the Pulitzer Prize * '' The Spectator Bird'' (1976), winner of the National Book Award * ''Recapitulation'' (1979) * '' Crossing to Safety'' (1987) ;Collections * ''The Women on the Wall'' (1950) * ''The City of the Living: And Other Stories'' (1957) * ''Writer's Art: A Collection of Short Stories'' (1972) * ''One Way to Spell Man: Essays with a Western Bias'' (1982) * '' The American West as Living Space'' (1987) * ''Collected Stories of Wallace Stegner'' (1990) * ''Late Harvest: Rural American Writing'' (1996), with

Bobbie Ann Mason Bobbie Ann Mason (born May 1, 1940) is an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and literary critic from Kentucky. Her memoir was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Early life and education A child of Wilburn and Christina Mason, Bobb ...

;Chapbooks * ''Genesis: A Story from Wolf Willow'' (1994) ;Nonfiction * ''Clarence Edward Dutton: An Appraisal'' (1936) * ''Mormon Country'' (1942,

American Folkways series The American Folkways is a 28-volume series of books, initiated and principally edited by Erskine Caldwell, and published by Duell, Sloan and Pearce from 1941 to 1955. Each book focused on a different region, or "folkway", of the United States, inc ...

) * ''One Nation'' (1945), with the editors of '' Look'' magazine * ''Beyond the Hundredth Meridian: John Wesley Powell and the Second Opening of the West'' (1954) * ''Wolf Willow: A History, a Story, and a Memory of the Last Plains Frontier'' (1962), autobiography * ''Wilderness Letter'' (1960) * ''The Gathering of Zion: The Story of the Mormon Trail'' (1964) * ''Teaching the Short Story'' (1966) * ''The Sound of Mountain Water'' (1969) * '' Discovery! The Search for Arabian Oil'' (1971) * ''The Uneasy Chair: A Biography of

Bernard DeVoto Bernard Augustine DeVoto (January 11, 1897 – November 13, 1955) was an American historian, conservationist, essayist, columnist, teacher, editor, and reviewer. He was the author of a series of Pulitzer-Prize-winning popular histories of the Ame ...

'' (1974) * ''Writer in America'' (1982) * ''Conversations with Wallace Stegner on Western History and Literature'' (1983) * ''This Is Dinosaur: Echo Park Country and its Magic Rivers'' (1985) * ''American Places'' (1985) * ''On the Teaching of Creative Writing'' (1988) * ''Where the Bluebird Sings to the Lemonade Springs: Living and Writing in the West'' (1992), autobiographical ;Short Stories
"Bugle Song"
(1938)
"Chip Off the Old Block"
(1942)
"Hostage"
(1943)

Awards

* 1937

Little Brown Little, Brown and Company is an American publishing company founded in 1837 by Charles Coffin Little and James Brown in Boston. For close to two centuries it has published fiction and nonfiction by American authors. Early lists featured Emily D ...

Prize for ''Remembering Laughter'' * 1945

Houghton-Mifflin Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (; HMH) is an American publisher of textbooks, instructional technology materials, assessments, reference works, and fiction and non-fiction for both young readers and adults. The company is based in the Boston Financ ...

Life-in-America Award and the

Anisfield-Wolf Book Award The Anisfield-Wolf Book Award is an American literary award dedicated to honoring written works that make important contributions to the understanding of racism and the appreciation of the rich diversity of human culture. Established in 1935 by Clev ...

for ''One Nation''"Wallace Stegner"
Encyclopedia of World Biography.

Thomson Gale Gale is a global provider of research and digital learning resources. The company is based in Farmington Hills, Michigan, west of Detroit. It has been a division of Cengage since 2007. The company, formerly known as Gale Research and the Gale Gro ...

. 2004. Retrieved 2-24-09. * 1950–1951

Rockefeller fellowship The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America, after the Carn ...

to teach writers in the Far East * 1953

Wenner-Gren Foundation Axel Lennart Wenner-Gren (5 June 1881 – 24 November 1961) was a Swedish entrepreneur and one of the wealthiest men in the world during the 1930s. Early life He was born on 5 June 1881 in Uddevalla, a town on the west coast of Sweden. He w ...

grant * 1956

Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences The Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) is an interdisciplinary research lab at Stanford University that offers a residential postdoctoral fellowship program for scientists and scholars studying "the five core social a ...

fellowship * 1967 Commonwealth Clubbr>Gold Medal
for ''All the Little Live Things'' * 1972

for ''Angle of Repose''"Fiction"
''Past winners & finalists by category''. The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved March 29, 2012. * 1976 Commonwealth Clubbr>Gold Medal
for ''The Spectator Bird'' * 1977

National Book Award for Fiction The National Book Award for Fiction is one of five annual National Book Awards, which recognize outstanding literary work by United States citizens. Since 1987 the awards have been administered and presented by the National Book Foundation, but ...

for ''The Spectator Bird''"National Book Awards – 1977"

National Book Foundation The National Book Foundation (NBF) is an American nonprofit organization established, "to raise the cultural appreciation of great writing in America". Established in 1989 by National Book Awards, Inc.,Edwin McDowell. "Book Notes: 'The Joy Luc ...

. Retrieved 2012-03-29.
(With essay by Harold Augenbraum from the Awards 60-year anniversary blog.) * 1980 ''Los Angeles Times'' Kirsch award for lifetime achievement * 199
P.E.N. Center USA West award
for his body of work * 1991

California Arts Council The California Arts Council is a state agency based in Sacramento, United States. Its eight council members are appointed by the Governor and the state Legislature. The agency's mission is to advance California through arts, culture and creativi ...

award for his body of work * 1991 Golden Plate Award of the

American Academy of Achievement The American Academy of Achievement, colloquially known as the Academy of Achievement, is a non-profit educational organization that recognizes some of the highest achieving individuals in diverse fields and gives them the opportunity to meet o ...

* 1992

(refused) Plus: Three

O. Henry Award The O. Henry Award is an annual American award given to short stories of exceptional merit. The award is named after the American short-story writer O. Henry. The ''PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories'' is an annual collection of the year's twenty best ...

s, twice a

Guggenheim Fellow Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

(1949 and 1959,) Senior Fellow of the National Institute of Humanities, member of National Institute and

American Academy of Arts and Letters The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, music, and art. Its fixed number membership is elected for lifetime appointments. Its headqu ...

, member

National Academy of Arts The National Academy of Arts ( bg, Национална художествена академия) is an institution of higher education in Sofia, Bulgaria. It is the oldest and most renowned school of arts in the country. History The National ...

and Sciences. The ''Encyclopedia of World Biography'' reports that the Little Brown prize was for "$2500, which at that time was a fortune. The book became a literary and financial success and helped gain Stegner heposition ... at Harvard."

References

;Notes ;Citations

External links

* *
Website for PBS Wallace Stegner documentary
* ttp://sfpl.lib.ca.us/librarylocations/main/envir/wsbio.htm Wallace Stegner Bio from San Francisco Public Librarybr>Wallace Stegner Bio on Answers.comProfile of Stegner marriage, on Beyond the MarginsCommittee for Green FoothillsWallace Earle Stegner papers finding aid, 1935-2004Wallace Earle Stegner photograph collection finding aid, Early 1900s-1980sWallace Stegner photo collection
*
Western American Literature Journal: Wallace Stegner
Collections includes correspondence, published materials, newspaper clippings, and more. Held at Montana State University'
Archives and Special Collections.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stegner, Wallace 1909 births 1993 deaths People from Lake Mills, Iowa American environmentalists Sierra Club directors 20th-century American novelists American male novelists American Presbyterians Harvard University faculty Historians of the American West Historians of the Latter Day Saint movement Iowa Writers' Workshop alumni National Book Award winners O. Henry Award winners People from Great Falls, Montana People from Orleans County, Vermont Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winners Stanford University Department of English faculty Novelists from Iowa Novelists from Utah University of Iowa alumni University of Utah alumni University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty Road incident deaths in New Mexico 20th-century American historians People from Los Altos Hills, California Activists from California Sierra Club awardees 20th-century American male writers Novelists from California Novelists from Massachusetts Novelists from Wisconsin Writers from Salt Lake City Notable residents of Montana Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters